h it is a just cause of regret that we do not see better homesteads
and better fences in Ireland, still we cannot admit that the tenant's
being obliged to keep such as exist in repair, can be any great hardship
in a pecuniary point of view, as he lays out scarcely any thing on them:
he does not even expend his own labour on their improvement; and his
time, which might be profitably occupied in this way, is wasted in
useless idleness, in swelling the train, or cheering the ferocious
sentiments, of some mercenary agitator.

Having shown, as correctly as it is possible to do, the relative amount
of rents paid in England and in Ireland, let us compare the amount of
rents paid in each of the Irish provinces. For this purpose we shall
take a maritime and an inland county from each.

Maritime. L s. d. Inland. L s. d.

Ulster--Down, average rent, 0 16 0 Tyrone, average rent, 0 14 6
Munster--Clare, do. do. 0 11 0 Tipperary, do. do. 0 17 8-1/2
Leinster--Wexford, do. 0 14 0 Longford, do. do. 0 12 3
Connaught--Mayo, do. 0 8 6 Roscommon, do. 0 13 0

It is well known that the quality of the land in the north of Ireland is
far inferior to that in either of the other provinces: yet we see, in
the maritime counties, that the rich and fertile lands of Clare and
Wexford are let much cheaper than the northern counties; and that Mayo,
inhabited by unquestionably the poorest and most miserable population in
Ireland, is rented at nearly half the amount paid by the independent
yeomanry of Down; while, amongst the inland counties, the splendid
plains of Roscommon, and the productive lands of Longford, yield less
income than the cold and, comparatively speaking, sterile soil of
Tyrone. Now, it is not too much (indeed it is under the mark) to say,
that _two acres_ in any of those counties we have quoted, in Leinster,
Munster, or Connaught, will feed more cattle, and grow more corn, than
_three acres_ in either of the northern ones; and yet the tenantry in
the north, who pay those comparatively high rents, are contented, and
the landlords are considered good.[34] Those statements are founded not
on our own opinions, but on incontrovertible facts; and, after having
read them, we would ask any dispassionate man if the disturbed condition
of the west and south of Ireland can be, with any justice, attributed to
the rents imposed by the landlords. In the